Thursday, October 1, 2015

Have to? Need to? or WANT to?



BIBLE MEDITATION:
“For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.” 1 Corinthians 9:19

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
There are three reasons for obedience. A slave obeys because he has to. An employee obeys because he needs to. But a loving son obeys because he wants to.

So many of us live like slaves, when Jesus has said, “Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you” (John 15:15).

ACTION POINT:
I don’t work for my salvation—that work has been done by my Lord. But I will work like any slave for the love of God. What about you?

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Going Through the Valley



BIBLE MEDITATION:
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.” Psalm 23:4

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
Psalm 23 is perched between Psalm 22, which tells about the crucifixion of Jesus, and Psalm 24, which is a prophecy of the coronation of Jesus. It is beautiful trilogy about the Savior’s cross, the Shepherd’s crook, and the Sovereign’s crown.

Psalm 23 is the valley between the blood-drenched slopes of Mount Calvary and the sunlit peaks of Mount Zion. Thank God for every valley, because there must be a mountain.

ACTION POINT:
If you are in the valley today, remember that you wouldn’t be there had there not been mountains to cross. There is vision in the valley and hope in the hills.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Making the First Thing the First Thing



BIBLE MEDITATION:
“Who can understand his errors? Cleanse Thou me from secret faults.” Psalm 19:12

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
I believe in church attendance, but if your relationship with the Lord and with others is suffering, then you need to stay at home and get on your face before God. 

Sometimes a businessman will get very prosperous in his business—and at first it seems a good thing. He tells his wife, “Honey, you know how I couldn’t give you much when we got married? Well, now I can.” But soon the pursuit of a nice home and nice things consume him. A sadness descends upon his wife and children, and they lament, “Oh, Daddy….Oh, Husband…what we would give to just have you spend time with us.” 

ACTION POINT:
What tragedy it would be if what you do for Jesus keeps you from Jesus. Stop the cycle today. If you know you’re a workaholic, stop it. If you know your walk is far from God, get it right.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Monday, September 28, 2015

What Jesus Wants More than Your Service


BIBLE MEDITATION:
“God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.” 1 Corinthians 1:9

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
Discipleship is fellowship with Christ, knowing Christ, loving Christ, abiding in Christ. 

I’m afraid that too many have joined the movement of Christianity rather than having surrendered to the man of Christianity. These people are doing things for Christ, rather than sitting at the feet of Christ.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with service, and we ought to serve God, but we need to learn that we must minister to Jesus Christ as His disciple before we can minister to others. Jesus values the time you spend with Him far more than the things you do for Him. Do you know that?

ACTION POINT:
Before you head out this morning or go to bed tonight, make sure that you make a date with Jesus.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Sunday, September 27, 2015

Our Unchanging Father



BIBLE MEDITATION:
“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” 1 Corinthians 2:14

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
God made the mind of man. All true discoveries and all true knowledge in this world come from God. It is God’s Truth and we do not have to be afraid of it. But that doesn’t mean we are to casually stroll down the devil’s lane of godless philosophies.

God’s Truth doesn’t change like philosophies. Malachi 3:6a says, “For I am the LORD, I change not.” I don’t know whether that means anything to you, but it means an awful lot to me, dear friend.

ACTION POINT:
The same God who loved us enough to put His Son on the cross two thousand years ago still loves us with that same love today. We don’t have to worry when we come to God in prayer that we might catch Him in a bad mood. Now, if that doesn’t start your motor, you don’t have one.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Horn of Salvation Jesus


Horn of Salvation Jesus

"On that day I will cause a horn to spring up for the house of Israel, and I will open your lips among them. Then they will know that I am the LORD." - Ezekiel 29:21


68 "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people 
69 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, 
70 as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, 
71 that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; 
72 to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, 
73 the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us 
74 that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, 
75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. 
76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, 
77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, 
78 because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high 
79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace." Luke 1:68-79


3 my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge, my savior; you save me from violence. 2 Samuel 22:3


2 The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. Psalm 18:2


Christ alone brings salvation.
God, being rich in mercy, sent Jesus to rescue the sinner.
There is no other way!!
Sin is eternally deadly!
Satan is the author of sin and lies.
He wants your soul and will stop at nothing until he has you in darkness and you think there is no escape!
Praise God there is a way out!!
The power of Jesus is stronger!!
Come to the foot of the Cross, repent and have eternal life through Christ!!



23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Romans 3:23


8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 1 John 1:8


23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23


8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8


4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 2 Corinthians 4:4

Saturday, September 26, 2015

Prayer-Christ-Redemption and the Trembling of Satan



Where does our power to confront Satan come from?
I mean yes it comes from God but I mean how do we get it?
Does God just drop it down from Heaven?
Does it spring from the water? 
Is it just floating in space?
No! 
God sends power when we, as the body of Christ, fall on our knees and pray!!!
You know why?
Because we show our dependence on Almighty God, the power of the Cross and we praise Him for He alone is worthy!!!
This is what makes Satan tremble!
He has been defeated from the start because God, who is rich in mercy, knew man would fall because of Satan and his cunning ways.
He prepared the way for salvation through His son!



4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
5 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, "Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; 
6 in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. 
7 Then I said, 'Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.'" 
8 When he said above, "You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings" (these are offered according to the law),
9 then he added, "Behold, I have come to do your will." He does away with the first in order to establish the second.
10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,
13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.
14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. - Hebrews 10:4-14



14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place.
16 For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that my name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time. - 2 Chronicles 7:14-16




5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, "He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us"?
6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble."
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. - James 4:5-10



The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.  - Psalm 51:17



11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation)
12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.
13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh,
14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
15 Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.
16 For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established.
17 For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive.
18 Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood.
19 For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,
20 saying, "This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you."
21 And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship.
22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
23 Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
24 For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.
25 Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own,
26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,
28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. - Hebrews 9:11-28